


Sixteen

by Chocolatepot



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Birthday, Canonical Child Abuse, Edonomee, Gen, Kevo, Sad Birthday, Servants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 00:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7778785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatepot/pseuds/Chocolatepot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Birthdays are difficult to get through at Edonomee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sixteen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smallbrownfrog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallbrownfrog/gifts).



> A couple of your prompts stood out to me, and I sort of combined them! I didn't get to explore the nature of family/household structure as I intended when I started, but the more I thought about Kevo and her perspective on Setheris and Maia's relationship - and the restrictions she'd be placed under, as someone else Setheris was in charge of - the more I was interested in a personal perspective.

Since Maia had come to Edonomee, his birthdays had gone unnoticed. This was largely due to the fact that Setheris refused to acknowledge them – indeed, for some time Maia had not been sure whether or not his cousin even knew the proper date – and Maia himself had never felt quite comfortable telling anyone else on the estate. At first this was because he couldn't bear to think of a birthday passing without his mother's presence, without her having his favorite foods prepared or singing songs to him. It hurt less to pretend that it was an ordinary day – just another day without his beloved mother.

And once the pain had faded somewhat, then it seemed too late to bring up the matter naturally. The cook at Edonomee was a kind woman: she did what she could for Maia out of Setheris's sight (when she did not remember to be discreet, there were recriminations – insults for her, slaps for him), and he did not wish to make her uncomfortable by bringing up the fact that he had concealed it from her, or to give her cause to attempt to mark the day and run afoul of his cousin. So for years, his celebrations consisted mainly of reminding himself that it was his birthday and spending his time as happily as possible while avoiding Setheris.

This was, alas, not always possible. On his sixteenth birthday, Maia made the mistake of tripping over a disordered carpet (not the fault of either of the cook's daughters: it had been moved in the night, and neither girl had come into the room to clean it yet, as Setheris was still occupying it) and knocking over a shelf full of ornamental metal dishes. Setheris, nursing a very sore head from his drinking the evening before, leapt up from his desk, took hold of Maia by the shoulder of his quilted jacket, and knocked his head into the wall.

"Half-wit," he growled. "Canst not even walk across the floor without making a nuisance of thyself? Thou shouldst live out in the barn."

Normally, Maia would cringe and pull back in anticipation of the next blow, but on this day – his sixteenth birthday, his ascent into maturity – he gave a push and Setheris staggered back, more from surprise and the lingering remnants of his drunkenness than from Maia's strength.

"I am an adult now," Maia said, straightening his shoulders – though he still did not quite dare to use the formal "we" to his guardian, whose edict was that Maia should only refer to himself informally in the presence of his betters.

Setheris paused a moment, then sneered. "An if thou art?"

It was dangerous to argue with Setheris at any time, for he did not like his authority questioned, but – Maia was an adult, and that ought to mean something. "It must change things." It was not meet to beat a child in one's care for the mere offenses that Setheris found punishable, but it was even less meet to treat an adult so. He was, after all, an archduke of the Ethuveraz, if only the fourth and least wanted.

"It changes _nothing_ , boy." It was almost as though Setheris was happy that Maia had brought up the subject, just for another excuse to correct him. "Thou art in my guardianship until the emperor says otherwise – not thee and they vainglorious prating." He began to advance on Maia, step by slow step, and with his back to the wall, Maia could not move away. "Thou art the same moon-witted hobgoblin thou wert yesterday, and if thou desirest me to prove it –" Somehow, Maia did not see the blow coming (perhaps he had deluded himself too much about their new equality; perhaps Setheris was less drunk than he had appeared) and the backhand dashed him to his knees. Tears sprang to his eyes against his will as he tasted the blood from his split lip, and Setheris strode past him with a laugh.

What a stupid impulse it had been on his part, to attempt to talk reason – Setheris regarded anything of the sort as rebellion, and he took delight in crushing it. And now he must spend his birthday nursing his lip, as well as the bump on his head and the aching shoulder that he had been given first.

After he picked up the offending metal plates that had caused all of the trouble and straightened the carpet, Maia betook himself to the kitchens to have a small luncheon, hoping to find just a little piece of fruit or some other treat that might make things seem more festive, as was his wont on his uncelebrated birthdays. The entire servants' wing was meant to be off-limits to him, but as Setheris rarely lowered himself to visit it for any reason, Maia had only to ensure he was not caught entering or leaving himself, and so they were something of a refuge instead. The cook, a stout, no-nonsense woman named Kevo from the village, did not mind his being there; she maintained her distance and did not mother him, but compared to the treatment he received from his cousin, she was at least like an aunt.

Kevo was working at the table when he came into the kitchen, fitting sheets of dough into metal molds to be filled with game. She glanced up, and he could tell that she saw enough to have an idea of what had occurred before she looked down again.

"We suppose you've come looking for something to eat, then," she said, brushing the flour off of her hands.

"We do not wish to trouble you," Maia muttered.

She shrugged, and set off to the cloth-wrapped bread on a countertop, where she cut a slice – then to the cupboard for a piece of the hard yellow cheese that was the traditional produce of the western marshes. Wordlessly, she handed them over to him, and he sat on the stool at the other end of the table where she had been working. It was difficult to eat without stretching his cut lip, and in the end he broke off small pieces of bread and cheese rather than taking bites.

The scene between himself and Setheris kept replaying in his head, and each time he was given the blow Maia felt more and more wretched and more certain that he was as moon-witted as Setheris said. He _was_ an adult – and yet he was _not_. Had he received a seal, a silver cup, heeled shoes – any of the traditional tokens of maturity? Had there been any word from the emperor, bestowing additional titles upon him? No. He was sixteen, and yet still a boy.

Lost in thought, he failed to notice when Kevo stopped filling pies and came to stand by him until she put her hand on his shoulder. He flinched, but she still seized his chin and tugged it up, turning his face this way and that.

"'Tis a deep cut," she said before letting go. She said nothing else, but ran a comforting hand through his hair as she went for a piece of ice, which she wrapped in a rag and handed to him. 

"Thank you." He pressed it to his lip, and then swallowed hard. These were his sixteenth-birthday tokens instead: a split lip, some bread and cheese, and ice. That he had been so thoroughly abandoned by his father – that Setheris still had the right to beat him … that he would be alone in Edonomee for the rest of his days, would he not? Tears began to spill over again, and he swiped at them angrily, not wanting to have to explain.

Kevo came back to his side anyway, and after a momentary hesitation, wrapped an arm about his shoulders. "The brute," she said, with an uncustomary hardness in her voice. "My poor dearie, he's no right to treat thee so. Thou art a good lad, and don't deserve such treatment. But one day thou'll be a man and go to court, when His Imperial Serenity calls for you."

And Maia could not tell her that he was now a man, or answer her with what he knew deep within his bones, that his father would never, ever allow him to be in his presence; he only leaned his head into her comforting arm and allowed himself to pretend that her calm wisdom would prevail.


End file.
